Tomatoes and apples reverse lung damage due to smoking

All of you are familiar with the adverse effects of smoking. It almost affects every organ in the body, lungs in particular. Every year, almost 480,000 people die of smoking cigarette in the United States. Smoking causes almost 90% of all lung cancer deaths.

Owing to these facts, the world of health and care had put in tireless efforts to research and find out the ways in which people could neutralize the damage caused by smoking.

A study, conducted in 2002, has discovered that a diet rich in fresh fruits, such as tomatoes and apples could repair lung tissues and slow the natural aging process of the lungs.

The European Respiratory Journal published the study. It was funded by the European Commission and led by Imperial College London.

The study involved a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Over 650 adults participated in the study. The researchers evaluated the diet and lung function of the subjects. The researchers conducted the same test for the group after 10 years. The participants from Germany, Norway, and the U.K. answered surveys or questionnaires which measured their diets and overall nutritional intake.

In addition, they underwent Spirometry. It is a procedure to measure how much oxygen the lungs can take or how much could they expel. The researchers recorded two instances,

How much air is exhaled in a second?

How much air is exhaled in six seconds?

The researchers also accounted for the factors like age, height, sex, body mass index, socioeconomic status, physical activities, and total energy intake of the participants.

The results of the study showed that the adults who ate more than two tomatoes or more than three portions of fresh fruit a day showed a slower decline in lung function. On contrary, who ate less than one tomato or a portion of fruit per day demonstrated a relatively faster decline. The results also noted that quitting smoking and adopting a healthy diet could healthfully add to the functioning of the lungs in a ten-year period.

The study clearly indicated that nutrients of a healthy diet can repair the damage caused by smoking. In addition, people who didn’t quit smoking but ate the most amounts of tomatoes showed a slower decline in lung function.

Lungs usually start to show a decline in their function around 30. According to Vanessa Garcia-Larsen, the study’s lead author, a healthy diet is a possible way to aid lung damage repair. Moreover, a diet rich in fruits slows down the aging of lungs for all people whether smokers or not.

Vanessa also suggested that eating more fruits on a regular basis can help attenuate the decline as people age. It might even help repair the damage caused by smoking. A healthy diet could serve to combat the rising diagnosis of COPD around the world. COPD is an acronym for the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The dietary sources of the vegetables and fruits also pamper the situation. Processed foods cannot serve the purpose as healthfully as fresh, organic sources can. Moreover, people, especially the ones at the risk of developing respiratory diseases such as COPD, require dietary recommendations for the consumption of fruits and vegetables.